A wealthy but stingy man’s military brother passed away. He had arranged the funeral to be a military one, with the pastor of his church to be the officiant. The wealthy man walked into the pastor’s office and offered to donate $50,000 to the church. But on one condition. During the funeral, the pastor had to stand up and tell the whole town that his brother was a saint. The pastor knew that the deceased man was far from a saint, so he hesitated a bit because he didn’t want to lie. After much thought about how all the good the money would do his church, he finally agreed.
The day of the funeral came and the pastor kept his word. He stated that the deceased man was a terrible person. Well, that’s not keeping his word. But concluded that compared to his surviving brother sitting in the front of the church, he was a saint. So he got in the saint there.
The most heartbreaking melody in American military history was written by a man who couldn’t even read music. To me, this is one of the coolest stories in music history. The story starts off in July 1862, right smack dab in the middle of the Civil War. The United States Union army had just been defeated at the seven day battles. Nearly 2,000 Union soldiers died in the battle and more than 8,000 were wounded. The camp looked like a hospital at the time. The military would customarily blast the lights out, call in the evening, signaling that the soldiers were headed to bed. General Daniel Butterfield, the commanding officer of the Union troops, knew that morale was crushed. And the last thing that the surviving men wanted to hear that night was a harsh regulation tune. He wanted something more peaceful and comforting.
But here is where the story gets even more interesting. You see, the problem is the general had zero music appreciation. He didn’t know how to write music or read music. But that didn’t stop Butterfield. He took out a pencil and paper and wrote down 24 notes. But the only notes he had was play one lower, one lower and play one higher. Because of his lack of music knowledge, he did however, call for his 22 year old bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton. So for the next hour, Norton and Butterfield sat down and created this historical song. That evening, Norton went out and played Taps for the first time.
And the impact was massive. Soldiers from both sides of the conflict wrote in their journals that the song broke profound silence to the battlefield. The song was so beautiful that the Confederate soldiers started copying the song and playing it on their own side. Taps quickly spread, becoming kind of an unofficial song. Of peace. But the story doesn’t end there.
A few days after the song was written, a Union soldier was killed in battle. The soldier’s captain wanted to salute him, but the problem was if they did a three gun salute, it might trigger a new battle. They wanted to keep. They wanted kind of to keep things on the quiet and keep the camp hidden. So instead they called the bugler to play Taps over the young man’s grave. This was the first time in US history that Taps was played at a military funeral. This is one of the most impactful songs ever written and it was written by a man who didn’t even know how to write music.
This story is an example of how our life as Christians is God doesn’t turn bad things good. There’s nothing in the Bible that says every cloud has a silver lining or the common phrase. We often hear this looks bad, but actually it’s a blessing in disguise. None of that sentimental nonsense can be found in the Bible. But we’re being told here. What we’re being told here is there are bad things and they stay bad things. But in the end God will bring good effects out of them just like Daniel Butterfield did did in our story. He looked at the bad situation around him and he didn’t go to his men and say, hey, chin up, it isn’t that bad, it’ll get better. No, he didn’t. No, he knew it was bad and he wasn’t going to be able to change it. But he did something which had a good effect that has lasted over the centuries and lasted it will last in our lifetime and throughout. A remembrance of how bad things can get. And in the moment there can be some peace and comfort.
A perfect example of this incredible balance in the Bible is Jesus Christ at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus is walking to the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus, his friend, is dead inside the tomb. Everybody’s weeping. Jesus knows he’s about to rise. Lazarus from the dead. You might think, why wouldn’t Jesus be walking to the tomb with a little smile, maybe whistling a nice little tune, knowing that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead? Might Jesus be saying, this looks bad, but it really isn’t bad? This is really not bad. It’s a good thing. But I’m going to be able to show the world who I am and I’m going to be able to make Mary and Martha happy. This death looks bad, but it’s not really bad. It’s a blessing in disguise. No. Jesus goes to the tomb weeping and furious, even though he’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He’s furious.
Why? Because death is bad. Evil is evil. It’s not like. Well, if you learn to look at something in a different way, you know, just from another perspective. No, death is bad. There’s realism in the Bible every time we read it that we sometimes miss. And the Psalms are full of grief and sorrow about the evil that’s out there. Jesus hates death and suffering so much that the Son of God was willing to plunge himself into our suffering and go to the cross, become human and die for us so that someday he could return and he could end all evil without ending us. He plunged himself into our suffering and into our death so that he could die for our sins, so that we could be pardoned and forgiven, so he could come back and end all this without ending us. Yes, I repeated that twice.
We know all too well that war is bad and sometimes over the years, has been a necessary evil to secure our freedom. Bad war, but good tended to come out of it. As we remember this Memorial Day, all the souls who gave their lives so that we can enjoy the freedom we have today, we also thank all past and present military members for their service. As Christians, let us not forget that Jesus gave his life in the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have eternal life. Amen.
